Blog + Portfolio

Thoughts: Colors

One thing I love about art is all the colors. There are so many different colors and they all elicit a different feeling. Red makes us think of love and passion, black reminds us of darkness and solidarity, green yells “eco-friendly!”. Combinations make us think of Christmas or other holidays, special events like a baby shower, or a specific brand.

Colors make us feel so many things, and so when we choose a favourite color, it’s just as if you’re picking a color that will evoke you.

As mentioned in a previous post, I love pink. Pink is known to be a “girly” color, which has its own pros and cons. For example, pink can make something look more feminine, but it can also be looked down upon in a professional context, which is why I struggled about whether or not I should feature pink in my resume. To me, pink is the color that defines me the most, but I didn’t want to jeopardize my opportunities with a misconception.

I think all the connections we make to each color is a beautiful thing, it offers a much deeper meaning to everything, but sometimes I believe it also hinders us in reaching a more free mind of acceptance.

For example, in a recent episode of The Return of Superman, a Korean variety show about celebrity dads raising children, one father tells a little boy that pink is for girls. The father also tells the boy that the new toy he bought for his sister, a princess vanity table, is for girls because boys don’t wear makeup. The boy becomes upset because he likes pink (his favourite stuffed animal is a pink Epe doll), and he retorts by saying that EXO (a Korean idol group) members wears makeup (which they do for performances and shows). His sister also supports him by saying that boys can like pink too, and that she is a girl but she likes blue and there is nothing wrong with that.

Even at the ECE center I work at, I see this gender-color mindset play out in front of our eyes. One of the little boys in my art class chose to have purple construction paper one day. The little girl beside him advised him to choose blue or green instead because those were “boy colors”, to which the little boy just muttered, “No, I like purple. You don’t know anything.”

Each color will always elicit a different set of responses, because realistically we can’t have every color mean every single thing. Orange will never represent the oceans like blue can, and blue will never be able to give off feelings of warmth like orange can, but in the same way I choose to have pink evoke me, any color should be acceptable to represent anyone.